Media content services like Pandora, Spotify, and Amazon give consumers access to copyrighted works. One reason consumers use those content services is to avoid the cost of owning content. But content services likely will always have holes in what they offer and likely will have trouble incorporating, into their services, all the ways consumers discover and then consume content. For example, discovery engines, like YouTube, generally are “siloed” with no connection to a streaming service, such as Spotify. In other words, no one tracks content that a consumer listens to or views on one service and then serves that content or like content on another service.
Most consumers discover new content, not through a content service, but through traditional discovery engines. And in using those traditional discovery engines, the consumer is passive for the most part. For example, consumers generally discover new music through passive listening of radio and then turn to content services for on-demand access to the new music. So, in general, listeners consume music from two sources: free sources and content services, which are paid-for sources. Some free sources, like radio, allow for passive discovery. Other sources do not—consumers must select content themselves to some greater extent.
Streaming services, a type of paid-for content service, can be referred to generally as, access providers because some allow limited downloads of content. This differs from traditional ownership because although the song is downloaded and is actually present on a particular device local to the user, the user does not own the file containing song or other media. The media file is, in some sense, transitory. The user may not be able to move the media file to another device, the user cannot backup the song, the user does not have a license for unlimited use of the song. In other words, the media and its state is controlled by the service.
Most consumers will never gravitate to one streaming service at the expense of all others. Rather, most consumers will probably combine a service with multiple other discovery engines. For example, music consumers likely will combine some music streaming service with multiple other music discovery engines like broadcast radio, satellite radio, internet radio, YouTube, and the like.
With streaming services, the consumer crafts playlists that include music that consumers have selected themselves and, to a lesser extent, music that the service has deemed acceptable to the listener by virtue of the genome of the listener-selected music. By and large, however, the listener selects that music. Indeed, even the music selected by the streaming service using genomic devices is likely already known to, and may be owned by, the listener. This access model is like renting the music—the listener pays for the ability to listen to music on-demand, but does not have rights to keep it. The listener can either pay-per-listen or pay a flat, periodic rate. The streaming service maintains the playlist and manages “radio” based on the listeners selections—all of the content is provided directly by the streaming service.
Streaming services do advertise an ability to “discover” new media content. But this type of discovery is not the same as the passive type of discovery that happens when someone listens to the radio. On the radio, a DJ or even a computer selects the music to play and presents it to the listener. The listener literally does nothing other than turn on the radio or computer, tune in, and listen. The listener has no control other than turning on and off the station. When streaming services use the term “discover,” what they really mean is allowing a customer to textually or contextually search for media content. It is not a passive experience and, hence, is not true discovery.
Another paid-for source are white-label services, branded download services, or brick-and-mortar record stores. By obtaining music from these sources, the listener owns the music—the listener obtains their personal copy and stores it somewhere, either virtually by storing an electronic file or in reality by, for example, putting a vinyl LP on a shelf. Again, these paid-for sources largely require the listener to select, on his own, the music to obtain. There is no spontaneous discovery available other than random search and select.
Although media sources can be classified as either free or paid-for, any media source will usually involve some sort of royalty payment for consumption of media content. With the ownership model, royalties generally are paid out of the purchase price of the content. Streaming services, on the other hand, can be considered pay-per-consumption. Pay-per consumption refers simply to how artists, publishers, record labels, etc. are compensated via royalties for the consumption of works. In some models, the royalties are paid from advertising distributed by the consumption source. For example, a music streaming service will post ads on an application or web page interface or stream an add In those instances, the service has control over whether the ad is presented. In a traditional broadcast medium, royalties are paid in much the same way. The difference between traditional broadcast media and streaming service, is that a traditional broadcaster exercises complete control over the content presented whereas streaming services offer an array of content for the user to consume. And for some streaming services in particular, the user can control the content consumed through playlists. In other models, users pay subscription fees from which royalties are paid. Typically, consumers are not subjected to ads if they are paid subscribers.
To hear new media content on demand that a consumer has discovered via some free source or through some source where the consumer is passive, the consumer must go to some other source to request, either through access or through ownership, the media content. And the consumer is left to manage all of the potential sources of media content and must resort to using multiple services to consume media. This is particularly true for listeners of music.
The result of the current modes of discovering, searching for, requesting, obtaining, and listening to music is that consumers must use several different sources and typically have multiple playlists of music that overlay each individual source. Again, each source is “siloed” such that the listener lacks the capability to enjoy music from multiple sources.
And these problems are exacerbated, particularly for music, because some streaming services have exclusive rights to music or particular artists. If a listener is not a subscriber of the exclusive streamer, this effectively limits the universe of access for the listener to ownership. If the listener prefers the access model and consumes most music that way, the listener effectively lacks access to the music.
Although present devices are functional, they are not sufficiently functional or otherwise satisfactory. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.